Today’s news cycles had a lot of bluster from GOP lackeys about the economy, President Obama’s birth certificate, and refusal of stimulus funds. But this is the real news:

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove was a no-show today at his scheduled deposition deadline for the House Judiciary Committee’s ongoing probe into the U.S. attorney firings — setting up a major decision for President Obama on how to respond to congressional subpoenas.

Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) subpeonaed Rove to find out what he knows about the Dec. 2006 firings which eventually toppled former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Yep, Rove knows where all the bodies are buried, and continually thumbs his nose at Congressional efforts to get at the truth.

I have been opposed to opening hearings on the warrantless wiretaps and possible war crimes because of the current economic crisis, but I am slowly changing my mind. I think that perhaps there will be no way to restore any trust in our government if we do not shine light on the past, and past transgressions.

I’m just catching up on all of the new information emerging around the DOJ scandal (one of the first reasons I began this blog). Monica Goodling, who we knew to be amazingly loyal, partisan, and evil in her zeal to politicize the US Attorneys’ office, performed the following search on potential candidates:

[First name of a candidate]! and pre/2 [last name of a candidate] w/7 bush or gore or republican! or democrat! or charg! or accus! or criticiz! or blam! or defend! or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount or sex! or controvers! or racis! or fraud! or investigat! or bankrupt! or layoff! or downsiz! or PNTR or NAFTA or outsourc! or indict! or enron or kerry or iraq or wmd! or arrest! or intox! or fired or sex! or racis! or intox! or slur! or arrest! or fired or controvers! or abortion! or gay! or homosexual! or gun! or firearm!

I will have much, much more to say about this. But for now, I just want to give high praise to Rep. Dennis Kucinich for having the integrity to press ahead with the impeachment of George W. Bush. During yesterday’s House session he spent four hours and forty minutes reading 35 articles of impeachment into the record.

Will this go forward? No. Not with the time he has left. But for history and posterity, the record will show a detailed account of the accusations put forward against President Bush.

Will he also read the accusations against Dick Cheney into the record?

One other thing: Scott McClellan will testify before the House in the Valerie Plame outing case.

Oh, and what should comprise the centerpiece of impeachment: The Senate Report issued last week, which concludes:

The “Phase II” report states — in terms clearer than any previous government publication — that there was no operational relationship between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, that Bush officials were not truthful about the difficulties the United States would face in post-war Iraq and that their public statements did not reflect intelligence they had at the time, and, specifically, that the intelligence community would not confirm any meeting between Iraqi officials and Mohamed Atta — a claim that was nevertheless publicly repeated.

Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence,” Rockefeller said in a statement provided to The Huffington Post.

“In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed. … There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate.”

And in other Bush egregiousness, parts of Iowa and Wisconsin are under water partly because levees failed.

If this guy is a friend of Hillary Clinton’s, she really doesn’t need any enemies. With screeds like this where imaginary terrorists named William Ayers become arguments against Barack Obama 5 days ahead of the West Virginia and Kentucky primaries, the excrable Larry Johnson displays the worst and ugliest of the Bush/McCain administrations while stumping for..

Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson works with US military commands in scripting terrorism exercises, briefs foreign governments on a regular basis on terrorist trends, and conducts undercover investigations on product counterfeiting and smuggling.

If you’re inclined to read the entire bio, you’ll discover two important facts. First, he was probably Barack Obama’s age (6) during the Weather Underground times and only knows what he’s read from biased right-wing liars. Second, he worked for the CIA at important, critical junctures, up to and including the year 1989, when the CIA should have been gathering and reporting the intelligence that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks. The CIA failures that caused George Tenet to fall on his sword. Yes, that CIA.

Of course, it also goes without saying that those same years in the CIA that have earned him such “acclaim” were also the Clinton years. Of course, it is true that they were a little distracted there at the end.

How unfortunate that he would go ballistic on Hillary Clinton’s behalf and write this:

Hillary’s only hope is that the super delegates will come to their senses and realize that Barack Obama’s relationships with the corrupt Tony Rezko, the racist-wife stealing Jeremiah Wright, and the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers will provide the Republicans with ammunition they have never had at hand to use against the Democrats’ candidate. This is particularly true of that flag stomper, Bill Ayers.

No, those are no hopes at all for Hillary. None. Zero. I’d like to think she’s learned her lesson when it comes to relying on this stuff. See, this year the voters are all about authenticity. Even the ones who didn’t go to college are thinking. (Note: If you believe any of the guano Johnson is tossing, you’re NOT thinking. Start.)

In actuality, the flag stomper is Mr. Johnson, who qualifies in my book as the same kind of government shill that was doing the dirty work for the Bushies with the networks when they were loaned out by the government as “consultants and commentators“.

So, Mr. Johnson, let me put this plainly. Bill Ayers ain’t going to play much of anywhere other than backwater areas where they only get Fox News and actually believe the shit they try to pass off as fact. Why? BECAUSE BILL CLINTON PARDONED TWO WEATHER UNDERGROUND CRIMINALS AND BILL AYERS WAS NOT CONVICTED OF SQUAT.

Got it? Good.

The rest of Johnson’s rant is just irrational. It hasn’t worked for the past month and it’s not going to work now. Ayers isn’t going to play no matter how desperately Bob Novak (aka Mr. “Out Valerie Plame”) wants to think so.

And Mr. Johnson, consider this. Not one time has Barack Obama pointed out Whitewater, the White House travel scandal, the “Lincoln Bedroom for campaign cash” scam, or Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Not one time. Surrogates speaking for Hillary Clinton should consider their own conduct in this regard.

This desperate gasp on Mr. Johnson’s part confirms what I’ve believed all along. The GOP was desperate for Clinton to be the Democratic candidate, believing that they had 1200 pages of dirt to serve up in the upcoming national campaign. Now that the majority of voters (no matter how you cut it, with and without Florida and Michigan, by the way) have said they choose Barack Obama, the GOP knows the inevitable truth.

In November, they will lose the White House and the Congress. There will be a sweeping mandate, and there won’t be a goddamn thing they can do about it.

Let’s see…Until the part about not wanting to use condoms, I figure he didn’t do too badly. He paid for everything, first-class all the way, was discreet, and didn’t pretend he wanted a relationship.

The only part that’s bad — really bad — is that he was crusading against prostitution while availing himself of it. To me, it’s the hypocrisy of that. Better that he should have fought to legalize it and protect sex workers from exploitation. Think of the tax revenues the state lost.

Oh, there is one other really, really bad thing. This broke on him because the bank thought his money transfers were ‘suspicious’. Despite the fact that the amounts were less than the magic 10K Terrorism threshold, someone just didn’t like that there were large sums ($4,300 is LARGE?) moving. That scares me more than the idea of Kristen and Eliot spending a couple of hours together in a five-star hotel.